Belgium faith in Engels

102

Replacing the Belgium captain with 8 minutes remaining of a defeat to France is not a perfect evening, but the direction of travel is clear for Arne Engels, who came on for Youri Tielemans in Brussels last night.

Since moving to Celtic from Augsburg in August, Arne won his first two full international caps, an indication of how highly rated he is by manager Domenico Tedesco.  Tedesco, still only 39, has managed Schalke and Leipzig, so will be well aware of the developing Bundesliga talent in recent seasons.

Hooking your captain, who plays in the FA Premier League for Aston Villa, for a 21-year-old when you are chasing an equaliser is a ballsy move.  He has faith in Arne.

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  1. Looks like we made it through Monday.

     

     

    As Jobo would say, 4 more sleeps until we face the plucky sheep/dandy Dons.

     

     

    HH!

  2. *Morning Aipple!

     

     

    Back at you friend.

     

     

    *Come here often?

     

     

    Early mornings mostly then dip in after work.

     

     

    *I thought Hurst played well.

     

     

    Excuse me?

  3. Watching Japan v Aussies is a possession and creative mismatch like a Celtic v Killie game.

     

    The Aussie goalie – Joe Gauci – is the bloke Villa preferred to keep over Sinisalo.

     

    Despite the good Souttar’s towering height and telescopic legs (could we not afford his wages?) if Daizen comes on he will create havoc in the Aussie backline.

     

    Japan very tidy in possession and streetsmart when they need to be.

  4. celtic40me on 15th October 2024 10:48 am

     

     

    If we are to make the step change to being a really competitive team in the CL I think Angie was right, we need to be more aggressive, sell players at the right time and take some real risks with signings, even though it will mean seeing more failures in the hoops than successes.

     

    ————————————–

     

    I don’t think anyone would disagree with your sentiments.

     

     

    Haven’t we been taking “risks” for some time now and getting pelters for it? Lagerbielke, Nawrocki, Holm, Tilio, Kwon, Oh, Ideguchi, Kobayashi, and Iwata all had good reputations in their home countries and from the outside it must have looked that they were ready for the next step. Not one of the nine costing c£20m have impressed at Celtic. That’s quite a lot of failures.

     

     

    We changed tack and paid good money c£30m for Engels, Trusty, Idah and Bernardo – I welcome that but of course it has only been possible because of our robust finances and the way we run the business

  5. Japan manager said he will consider using Maeda as a wing back,interesting……maybe play him to cover AJ v Atalanta…..

  6. Japan 71% possession, Aussies 29%. The hosts clearly the better team.

     

     

    Aussies finish game with ex-Dundee Utd LB and ex-St Mirren midfielder playing defensive right mid.

     

     

    As one-sided in possession as we were v Dortmund; yet a credible draw to Poppa’s socceroos.

     

     

    No sign of Daizen or Reo. McGree came onto a more battling game in 2nd half; still nowhere near Matt ORiley quality.

  7. BOURNESOUPRECIPE @ 1:05 PM,

     

     

    🎶There’s only one Nakamura, he eats chow mein…. 🎵

     

     

    Wait… who writes this stuff!?

     

     

    Hail Hail

  8. CELTIC40ME @ 9:45 AM, 10:47 AM,

     

     

    Well, it’s like the summer ’23 transfer window never happened.

     

     

    Let me remind you – it was a car crash, it is why the process you advocate was binned.

     

     

    You say this summer’s window never improved us, to an extent that’s true, yet you also want us to sell our high value players.

     

     

    So how can we improve if we sell our best players!?

     

     

    Our central defence hasn’t recovered since we sold VVD…

     

     

    …Oh!! For a Wanyama, we cry into our beer on UCL away nights…

     

     

    Yet the fact is no more gambles is definitely the way to go…

     

     

    We have took the best of the old “model” and modified it.

     

     

    We have lost Hart, O’Riley, Abada, this year.

     

     

    We have replaced them with Schmeichel, Engels, Kuhn

     

     

    Back filling is a huge part of squad management that we’ve forgotten about for well over a decade.

     

     

    Kuhn didn’t improve on Abada when he first arrived but arguably looks better now.

     

     

    Engels will take time to replace O’Riley but has every chance of being a better player, as Paul67 said, taking of the Belgium Captain and Engels replacing him against France shows just what a player we have.*

     

     

    Players we have lost like…

     

     

    Oh, Turnbull, Kwon, Siegrist, Lagerbielke, Bernabei,

     

     

    Players we have got in…

     

     

    Idah, McCowan, Bernardo, Sinisalo, Trusty, Valle

     

     

    For me that’s an all round improvement

     

     

    We need to let the new players settle in and give the new look team time to develop.

     

     

    As for a smaller squad, it’s a must if we want to develop players to the next level and improve the team.

     

     

    Kuhn sharing coaching time with Tilio!? You’d imagine the coach would be spending more time getting Tilio up to scratch, than making Kuhn the top player he’s shown every indication he can be.

     

     

    No, our coaches’, physios’ tactician’s and analysts’ time is of the essence, itmust be focused on improving top quality players.

     

     

    *Belgium U21s have a 19 y.o. 9mn player called Stassin, at nil nil at Tynecastle, they called him off the bench and he beat the Scotland U21s, the fact Engels is much more highly thought of in the Belgium set up says it all

     

     

    BTW: Stassin is going to be a star…

     

     

    Hail Hail

  9. bournesouprecipe on

    Chairbhoy

     

     

    ‘That’ window was unique as previously discussed, nothing much out of nine takes a bit of beating. Boosting Luis Palma might or might not be flogging a dead horse, when he’s not even the best winger signed in that window because Yang is ahead in making the squad ( Sligo goals which I could have converted aside)

     

     

    Brendan Rodgers took control of signings, a Head of Recruitment and his team, is still vital to get them set up for Top Tier scrutiny.

     

     

    HH

  10. CHAIRBHOY on 15TH OCTOBER 2024 1:57

     

     

    “Well, it’s like the summer ’23 transfer window never happened.”

     

     

    It was one transfer window, it doesn’t make the whole strategy a failure, it makes one window a failure.

     

     

    We’re about to come up against a club who continually punch up domestically and in Europe because of their smart player trading model. Europa league champions. A huge squad with thirty players on loan, a load of signings and sales every season, a data led approach to signing players that can be developed and sold at a big profit

     

     

    It can work, we just need to do it better than we did last Summer and replicate the successes that we’ve had in the past. Sign them before they are beyond out means. Spend big on an Edoaurd, buy more for less like all the other players who’ve done well. Accept that there will be failures, help bring as many through as possible.

     

     

    I don’t think the “new strategy” if such a thing exists looks particularly attractive as we stand today. The last two performances don’t suggest we’ve spent 30m well either for the here and now or for the future. We don’t seem to be improved in Europe, or at least not as much we need to be.

     

     

    We’re making safe, conservative choices signing guys who we know will improve our squad but not enough to be as good as we want to be in Europe. It’s the low-risk choice that keeps us in the same place, lacking in ambition and settling for European mediocrity.

     

     

    I can understand the thinking to a point -assembling a squad to win the league and beat inferior opposition in the qualifiers does achieve the goal of regular champions league football. But it’s a low-ambition choice for Celtic. We’ll never consistently punch above our weight or even avoid nights like Dortmund if we choose to spend our money on players we know for sure won’t be good enough at the highest level.

     

     

     

    “Let me remind you – it was a car crash, it is why the process you advocate was binned.”

     

     

    It’s not why it was binned. It’s because Brendan wanted to do it his way. His legacy might well be stagnation in the squad

  11. Chairbhoy, that kid Lucas Stassin didn’t even make the original Belgium U21 squad! He was called up as a late replacement. They adore him in Belgium as a real star of the future (see the match highlights on the Royal Belgian Football Association website, you don’t need to speak any Flemish to know that the commentators are purring over the kid and at one point they call him (in English) ‘the fox in the box’!

  12. By the way in that same U21 game, in the 23rd minute one of the Scots commits a horrendous foul. The Belgian commentators cannot believe it’s not a straight red. I thought at the time it looked Hunnish, very much in the mould of Lundstram on AJ at Celtic Park. And yep, it was new hun Connor Barron. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

  13. BOURNESOUPRECIPE @ 2:24 PM,

     

     

    Agreed, when the best of the bunch are enigmas, riddled with inconsistency, in fancy wrapping we really had an issue.

     

     

    As far as the Sligo Hat-trick goes, Scottish football legend Ally McCoist would have been proud of that.

     

     

    We will know before Santa arrives what our most recent recruits are made off…

     

     

    Hail Hail

  14. KINGLUBO @ 2:42 PM,

     

     

    Let’s hope so, if the guys got it, he’ll make it – I have it on good authority the Norwegian NT need to improve – opportunity knocks.

     

     

    Hail Hail

  15. I agree Brendan wants the whole of the football side of the business to be what he wants. He will weed out the Ange influences and will blindside the Board by speaking directly with Desmond. The board policy will reflect Brendan wishes.

     

     

    I can see him staying past his 3 year contract and being the main man for Dermot.

     

     

    Our club is changing

  16. CELTIC40ME @ 2:44 PM,

     

     

    Of course, we’ve often discussed the recruitment on this site and a constant headscratcher for me is the arguments to support the model.

     

     

    A furinstance in your comment…

     

     

    Atalanta as an exemplar…

     

     

    Lee Congerton was until recently the Recruitment guy there, yes, Atalanta did a great job and Lee Congerton assisted greatly in that.

     

     

    However, this happens to be the same Lee Congerton that was Head of Recruitment at Celtic.

     

     

    However with few exceptions, Celtic PLC wouldn’t buy the players Lee Congerton – Edouard you mention, is an exception that proves the rule.

     

     

    Beating… “inferior opposition in the qualifiers does achieve the goal of regular champions league football. But it’s a low-ambition choice for Celtic.”

     

     

    Well, it’s maybe low ambition but it’s a heck of a lot more than we have managed in the last twenty years.

     

     

    Brendan has taken us through the qualifiers back to back, again an exception that proves the rule.

     

     

    Regularly qualifying for the UCL group stage is the only way our peer group have become relatively successful in the Champions League.

     

     

    For me that’s the goal…

     

     

    As you mentioned earlier, the squad is thin on the ground as far a numbers are concerned, yet that means we have “slots to fill” in the January window.

     

     

    Hopefully with quality rather than punts…

     

     

    The players we currently have will improve greatly – Engels and Bernardo have loads of potential to make a formidable midfield partnership going forward.

     

     

    The numbers game is finito imo and if that was Brendan Rodgers’ call, he’ll be judged on that, my feelings are, we will see the 30 mn spent this year as money very well spent.

     

     

    Hail Hail

  17. BIGBHOY on 15TH OCTOBER 2024 4:03 PM

     

     

    That could make us an anomaly in the champions league, certainly among the bigger clubs we’re looking to beat

  18. FIELDOFDRAMS @ 3:57 PM,

     

     

    Yes, watched the game – YouTube, so no Flemish commentary, Connor Barron was a disgrace, he’s definitely going backwards.

     

     

    Some of the Scottish lads looked good and held their own – jury still out on Lennon Miller for me but the lad definitely has something

     

     

    Dane Murray, the real deal… going to see how they do against Kazakhstan U21 at five today.

     

     

    Will definitely keep an eye out for the “fox in the box”

     

     

    Hail Hail

  19. BSR,

     

     

    Yes,Hat Tricks are easy.Anyone can do it.Boring after a while really.We must be sick of watching them this season.

     

    Agenda peeking through there.

  20. Interesting story about Benfica selling their most prized asset, the superstar kid Joao Neves in the summer.

     

     

    https://www.goal.com/en-gb/lists/joao-neves-eur70m-transfer-psg-confirmed-benfica-president/bltce9ca60445ac74e3#csb5cd10a5ee3cbbea

     

     

    They are in a bit of a mess financially so they couldn’t really turn down the money but it didn’t make it any more of a popular decision among the fans. Rui Costa has had a constant problem selling the sales of the best players up the fans

     

     

    It wasn’t just Neves, they sold 6 players in total for €140m and bought 6 replacements for €55m but it doesn’t seem to have harmed their form in the champions league so far. All 25 or under, they have an extremely young squad

  21. bournesouprecipe on

    Turkeybhoy

     

     

    Because you like Luis Palma doesn’t mean the rest of have to, just ask Daizen Maeda 👍

  22. CHAIRBHOY on 15TH OCTOBER 2024 4:09 PM

     

     

    “Of course, we’ve often discussed the recruitment on this site and a constant headscratcher for me is the arguments to support the model.”

     

     

    I know, it defies logic really. Perhaps it’s down to the personalities involved but you do seem to have a bit of trouble seeing the bleeding obvious

     

     

     

    “A furinstance in your comment…

     

     

     

    Atalanta as an exemplar…”

     

     

    Perhaps this explains it. That’s not an argument about the model.

     

     

     

    “Well, it’s maybe low ambition but it’s a heck of a lot more than we have managed in the last twenty years.”

     

     

    I agree. Not good enough, although Brendan isn’t beyond reproach – he did fail with one of our more expensive teams didn’t he? Two out of three is above par though.

  23. garygillespieshamstring on

    Is the Belgium manager any relation to the T T Tedesco for t t t tiling dynasty? :)

  24. So, if Brendan wants the football side of the club to reflect his outlook and managerial ways, does that mean that if we are on the wrong side of a drubbing vs Atalanta, or even Aberdeen, can we expect BR to put his hands up and say – “That is on me” ????

     

     

    PS, Kyogo and Maeda are counterattacking strikers of excellence – not sitting midfielders or wingers.

  25. CHAIRBHOY

     

     

    “Well, it’s maybe low ambition but it’s a heck of a lot more than we have managed in the last twenty years.

     

     

    Brendan has taken us through the qualifiers back to back, again an exception that proves the rule.”

     

     

    Easy to forget that Lenny did it in 2012/13 and 13/14.

  26. CELTIC40ME @ 5:14 PM,

     

     

    Yes, fair play to Lenny and the bhoys – misremembered, thought we qualified automatically but you are right…

     

     

    Lenny did back to back qualifiers as well.

     

     

    Hail Hail0

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